During the construction of a building having a concrete slab floor, it is customary to restall a drain in the floor prior to pouring the concrete. Both the drain strainer and the cleanout port closure threadingly engage the drain pipe unit in order to provide adjustability to the vertical height of the drain strainer and the cleanout port closure. Once the drain pipe unit is coupled to the rest of the building plumbing, the drain strainer and the cleanout port closure may be adjusted to be flush with the height of the finished floor.
Thereafter, when concrete is poured to finish the floor, great care must be taken that concrete is not allowed to flow over the drain strainer, which would clog the drain, or over the cleanout port, which would prevent future access to the cleanout port for servicing the drain. This is obviously difficult to do when pouring a large concrete slab floor. Furthermore, once the concrete surrounding the drain strainer and the cleanout port has hardened, it is no longer possible to adjust the height of the drain strainer or the cleanout port.
Devices are known in the prior art for preventing concrete from flowing up to a drain pipe riser designed to sealingly engage a toilet bowl outlet and associated sealing gasket, both of which are installed after the concrete floor has hardened. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,887 describes a drain collar formed from an inner sleeve sized to engage the dram pipe riser and a larger outer sleeve coupled to the inner sleeve by a series of webs. After the concrete has been poured and hardened, the webs are broken and the inner sleeve is removed, leaving an annular space around the dram pipe riser for installation of the sealing gasket. Such a device would be inappropriate for keeping concrete away from a drain strainer and cleanout port because the relatively large annular space would have to be later filled, as there is no sealing gasket required around either of the drain strainer or the cleanout port.
There is therefore a need in the prior art for a drain strainer and cleanout port spacer which will keep concrete away from the drain strainer and cleanout port during pouring of a concrete slab, but which will not leave a large annular space therearound. The present invention is directed toward meeting this need.